Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

The Solar JOOS Orange by JOOS is the most substantial, powerful, and ruggedized solar device charger on the market. Testing it in the strong Florida sun showed us how valuable this could be during hurricane season. Photo: Patricia Vollmer.

I have a confession. I have to blame the Carnival Triumph cruise ship situation for this product review. Pictures from the passengers’ ordeals were circulating around the web, and this particular one caught my attention. Passengers were desperately trying to keep in touch with their loved ones and were working hard to milk every ounce of power available to keep their cell phones charged. There were accounts on the news of friends and family on the mainland receiving erratic texts from the passengers, and how valuable those little tidbits of information were.

Similar accounts circulated after Superstorm Sandy’s and Hurricane Katrina’s devastations.

In a day and age where texting, Tweeting and other forms of micro-blogging are the standard, it’s now expected for people to be well-connected, and sometimes we take for granted that a critical part of that is having enough battery power.

This is where solar device chargers can really come in handy: so long as there’s sunlight, you can keep your cell phone charged. This can be absolutely critical when it comes to disaster preparedness, as folks along Tornado Alley and the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States can attest.

The last solar device chargers I reviewed were the Etón FRX-2 and FRX-3 devices, which were extremely weak when it came to providing device power and were clearly for emergencies only. The focus of the solar panels in both systems were to power the emergency radio and flashlight; the USB device charger was a bonus capability.

On the other hand, the Solar JOOS Orange system is meant not just for emergencies, but is marketed as a must-have piece of equipment for any tasks that take you away from electricity: boating, camping, and backcountry adventuring.

A lot of us depend on mobile devices for a routine entertainment fix. It’s just a crying shame that none of them can crank out anything resembling decent sound. Whether you’re trying to listen to music or just binge on a little Breaking Bad, it’s hard to follow anything with audio on a smartphone, a tablet or pretty much any other portable.

There are plenty of add-on speakers on the market. One of those is the Braven 570. Available in six different colors, the Braven 570 is made for pairing with all of your portable devices — and I do mean all of them.

The Braven 570 speaker is packaged with a USB cable and an audio cable for connecting to other portables. If you hate to be tethered, this speaker does support Bluetooth wireless music streaming. That’s basically all you’re going to need. After all, who needs a lot of extras when the speaker itself is so compact? The Braven 570 is built to travel, whether you’re hitting the road, going to the beach, or just heading upstairs to fold laundry.

Before you do that, you’re going to need to charge up the speaker. Braven recommends a good 2 to 4 hours’ worth of charging. In return, you should get about 10 hours of playtime. Now, here’s something interesting about that USB cable. Not only does it charge up the speaker, but you can use it to connect your portables — and charge up those devices.

One side of the speaker has a 3.5mm audio-out port for hooking up various portables and the USB port so you can use the Braven 570′s battery power to charge devices on the go. On the other side, there’s a power switch, a 3.5mm audio-in, a micro-USB port for charging the speaker, and several buttons that provide multiple functions. Those options include two volume buttons that can also skip and flip back through music tracks, with another that’s able to pause music, pair the speaker with Bluetooth devices, and answer and end phone calls.

Yes, the Braven 570 is also a speakerphone. Whether you go with the Bluetooth or tether your phone, this was a nice little perk. As much as I depend on my iPhone, I hate the way it feels and sounds after a few minutes of talk time. This option provided decent sound quality and allowed me to do a few chores while chatting away. However, I wouldn’t recommend wandering too far from the speaker.

Back to the music, which is why I’m guessing you’d want something like this in the first place. Please know that I’m an impatient person, so when I first got the Braven 570, I plugged my iPhone in right away and started rocking out some Pixies. Out of the box, I was surprised at how low the speaker’s loudest point was, until I realized that I just needed to turn up my iPhone. Aha! Even though the speaker does have volume buttons, you’ll want to use your portable as another control option.

The sound was surprisingly good — or as good as you can expect to get out of a tiny $120 portable speaker. I paired the Braven 570 with two different phones (wired and wirelessly), as well as my laptop and the Kindle Fire. I cranked stored music, Spotify, Netflix, and a bunch of quickie hits off YouTube. I was hoping to use the Braven 570 during my workouts, but my elliptical is just too loud. Also, the louder you crank this speaker, the worse it actually sounds.That said, this thing can rock pretty loud and would be perfect for around the house or office. A house party or backyard barbecue would be a whole other story. Having the Bluetooth option was a huge bonus, but know that you’ll need to pair the device with the speaker every time you use it. (It doesn’t stick.)

The Braven 570 certainly isn’t the best portable speaker out there. I wish that the volume would go a little higher or the price would go a little lower. It’s only $119.99, but would be an easier sell for about $20 less. However, it’s certainly a nice little device that can give all of those portables a much needed audio boost.

GeekMoms are often like superheroes–we’re leading double lives. Sometimes triple or quadruple lives. And all those lives have stuff, and you need somewhere to put them. I have the kind of work life that’s sometimes best led with a sturdy backpack with a TSA-friendly laptop pouch. Then sometimes I just want to be a grown-up, not a backpacker, but I don’t want to leave the geek behind. Thus the Kate Spade Cobble Hill Jordan. The Jordan bags are the best combination of tablet case and purse with Kate Spade style.

I haven’t been much of a purse-carrier for most of my life, but I’ve come to a point in my life where I’m not always wearing jeans with good pockets. (Insert yet another plea for women’s clothing to come with useful pockets!) And that’s the point where you start having to carry some kind of bag. I’m also a writer, and writers need to write. The second I got my hands on a tablet, I wanted to know if it could replace my laptop as a writing tool. The first one I had couldn’t–it couldn’t keep up with the speed of my typing. Now they can, and I’m ready to leave the laptop behind, especially for big conferences like SXSW or Dragon*Con where I don’t want to haul a backpack around all day.

The bag was designed for an iPad but fits my G-slate tablet as well. If you’d like to measure your own tablet, the space for the screen is 6″x7.75″, and the overall space for the tablet is 7.5″x9.75″.

The Jordan has two compartments, one for the tablet and one for the rest of your stuff. The tablet side unzips on three sides, which makes it easy to fold back the side of the bag and hold in in your lap to use the tablet. The other compartment unzips only across the top, like your average purse. It’s not a massive space–you’re not going Mary Poppins with this bag. But for a geek girl who just needs a place to put her wallet, phone, and a few small things, it’s perfect.

I put the Jordan to the GeekMom test during SXSW and over the last few weeks, and it seems to be the bag that has turned this lifelong pockets-user into a purse-carrier. A spot for my geek goods and I can wear cute dresses without clunking it all up with a leftover-from-college backpack? Sold.

If you prefer orange or green, you might be interested in the similar Grove Court Jordan bag. Both retail for $258.

The GripGo claims to let you “Talk and Drive Safely”. I’ll let you know what I think. Photo: Patricia Vollmer.

My automobile has built-in GPS. Not by choice. To get a 2009 Honda Pilot with a built-in DVD player for the kids, you had to accept several other goodies, from the GPS to the moon roof to the leather interior. It’s okay, we got a very good deal on the vehicle.

Unfortunately, over time, the maps on the GPS you receive with a new vehicle require updates, and for many cars, those update DVDs can cover over $100!

My husband and I were plagued with this decision last year when we took a couple road trips in his car — as opposed to our SUV — without a GPS built in. We used the mapping apps on our iPhones, but didn’t have a clever way to mount the phone to the vehicle.

This is where the GripGo can come in. According to their press release, the GripGo can

instantly grip any style phone or GPS

mount easily to your dashboard or windshield

act like a million suction cups that grip and release over and over again, thanks to its “unique polymer surface”

not require adhesives or tools

detach from your device “instantly” with “no sticky residue”

pivot 360 degrees for that perfect viewing angle

retail for as little as $10.99

On a very basic level, all of the above facts are true. But in reality, it’s far from perfect. If you’re reading this blog, then you are looking for more than just a basic review. I kicked things up a notch.

Y-Cam’s HomeMonitor Indoor is a secure home security camera system that is easier than any webcam or baby monitor I’ve ever experienced. It’s very nearly “Plug and Play”, and if you choose to leave it on your wired router, it really is! With my never-ending search for a high-quality weather webcam, this is definitely a contender. It’s also secure for your privacy, a feature that’s less and less common in today’s world of open source and cloud-based capabilities. Let’s explore.

What Comes in the Box

HomeMonitor camera

Metal mounting bracket

Screws for the mounting bracket

AC power supply with three plug mounts for international use

Short (1 meter) ethernet cable

Quick-Start Instruction booklet

Setup

Setup is incredibly easy. You don’t need to insert a CD to install software or anything! It’s all web-based. Simply connect the camera to your home’s Internet router, apply AC power, and then log into the HomeMonitor website to register the device and establish an account.

The website will take you through several steps to communicate with the camera, establish the WiFi networks (if desired) and help you mount your camera.

In order to properly site the camera, it must be screwed onto the mounting device with a thumb-screw. Be careful using the screw, ensure the threaded post is actually going in, it’ll be hard to see with the large plastic collar around the screw itself.

My first-time setup was very straightforward, everything worked as planned. After setup is complete, if you are using the camera on WiFi, go ahead and disconnect it from the router and place the camera anywhere with AC power access.

I started with my living room and eventually moved it to sit side-by-side with my Dropcam and Logitech webcam as a weather webcam.

The image quality is the best of all the webcams and WiFi home security cameras I have ever seen. But I did notice that the view isn’t as wide as one of their competitor’s: Dropcam. Image capture: Patricia Vollmer.

You can set up multiple cameras in the same account, such cameras for the front porch, back porch and living room. They can be monitored on a single webpage for your convenience.

Useage

You cannot share this image feed with others unless they have your login and password. This is a secure cloud system, so unless you’re a hacker, you can be comforted in knowing that your living room’s or front porch’s goings-on aren’t public.

Included with the cost of your camera HomeMonitor provides seven days of archive support, with the archive stored on the company’s cloud server. You can access the archives through your camera’s registered account. No subscription required!

HomeMonitor also includes the ability to send motion detection alerts. Setting this capability was relatively easy, and Y-Cam provides some clever tips to keep the system from alerting you every time your dog walks in front of the camera! If there’s a motion detection alert, Y-Cam will grab the motion feed, with a +/- 5 second buffer to the video clip link that’s sent to you.

A recommendation is if you want to know when the back door opens and closes, set the motion detection for the very top of the door, so that an alert doesn’t get triggered every time someone walks in front of the door without using it. I didn’t fully refine this alert area yet, but ultimately it was much smaller. Image capture: Patricia Vollmer.

There is a night-vision capability on the camera also. I didn’t capture an image of it, but it wasn’t what I expected. For some reason, I was thinking it would look like something a solider would see through night-vision goggles. That isn’t the case: the image will still be pretty dark, but the IR sensors will help with motion detection and alerting you if you had set up that feature.

My HomeMonitor kept falling off my network for the first 2-3 days. Each time it did, I would receive an automated email about it, then would receive another one when the camera reappeared on the network. I liked this feature, but wasn’t happy with how often the camera was coming off my network (approximately once per day, for about 5-10 minutes at a time). After all, what if that was when a home invasion occurred? I’m not sure if it was my network giving the camera problems or the camera itself, I haven’t fully troubleshooted this issue.

Like the Netatmo weather station I had reviewed last year, the product is designed to be very minimal with its appearance; the bulk of information is displayed through its web-based graphic user interface. This means that when the web connection is unavailable to the HomeMonitor, you’re left with a box with a red blinking LED light (which indicates a connection error, a solid green light indicates a properly functioning camera)…with little else to be done. I’m not convinced this is the best way to do business, but it seems to be the wave of the future, so hang on tight.

At one point, the camera wouldn’t re-establish a network connection after several hours so I uninstalled and reinstalled the camera. Since this was such an easy process, it was relatively little trouble, but in principle, I’m not sure how often this might be a problem for someone.

After the first 2-3 days of connection hiccups, it ran pretty stable for the next several days and continues to do so now.

Website/Mobile App

HomeMonitor has mobile apps for the iOS and Android mobile operating systems, so you can check up on your camera’s feeds through your iPhone, iPad or Android devices. You can watch live feeds, view archives and receive mobile alerts of motion detection.

The mobile app is great for monitoring, but you cannot set up cameras this way. You must use a desktop browser version to complete setup.

Conclusions

I cannot emphasize enough how easy this camera is for setup and use. If you have a stable network, you will be seeing footage in as little as 3 minutes from when you first plug the camera into your router. The night vision isn’t like what you might see on TV, but will help with any motion detection alerting you have set up. The mobile apps will help you keep tabs on what your camera is viewing even when you aren’t at home or at a desktop computer. Mobile alerts and email will keep you in touch with any abnormal motion in front of your custom-designated alert zones.

Powerocks portable chargers are designed to give you all the power you need to stay connected no matter where you go. They offer a full line of charging products that are small enough to fit in a purse, briefcase, backpack, or in some cases even your back pocket.

Each week, Shark Tank showcases passionate inventors pitching their ideas to a team of “sharks” with the hope of striking a deal to get the capital they need to make their big ideas a success. The sharks are a tough audience, but one group of kids not only made their way onto the show, they walked away with a deal. I spoke with them about their invention and the excitement of developing a product that could help save lives.

The former FIRST Lego League team called The Inventioneers came up with an idea to help with distracted driving called the SMARTwheel. If you take your hands off the wheel for too long, little red lights glow and there’s an audible tone. It even knows if you’re driving one-handed or with both hands right at the top of the wheel which is a common method of texting while driving.

“One of our team members was just learning how to drive, so we were thinking about some of the problems with distracted driving and that’s how it all got started,” said 12-yr-old team member Kate Balcom. What started as a part of a FIRST Lego League challenge eventually became the idea that they pitched on Shark Tank.

The SMARTwheel, Image: SMARTwheel

T.J. Evarts, the 14-year-old team leader, talked about how the experience of being in FIRST Lego League encouraged them to see just how far they could go. “One of the big advantages about the program is we try to take our ideas as far as possible,” he said. “These are inventions that could actually help the world so we were really inspired to put them out there.”

They even conducted a university funded study at MIT for two days to see how people felt about driving a simulated car with the SMARTwheel. The results, according to 14-yr-old Emily Balcom, were really encouraging. “We surveyed those subjects and 90% of them said that the SMARTwheel would be an effective driver training tool and 70% said they’d buy the SMARTwheel if it was tied to an insurance discount.”

The results were so encouraging that the team even filed for, and received, provisional patent protection to protect their idea for a year. They saw this as important part of the process, and it helped them flesh out their ideas further, discovering even more possible applications for their invention.

The Inventioneers Meet President Obama, Image: White House by Pete Souza

For the 2009-2010 season, their idea earned them the title of World Champions for FIRST Lego League and eventually led to them being invited to present it at the first ever White House Science Fair. You’d think that getting to show your invention to President Obama would be the be-all, end-all, but there was still more.

The producers of Shark Tank invited them onto the show and they left with a deal for a $100,000 investment at a 30% stake. They actually snagged two investors in Robert Herjavec and Mark Cuban who went in on the deal together.

The process is still moving along, with all the legal details of such a hefty investment being worked out, and the team is excited for what lies ahead. With the success they’ve had so far, we might all be driving cars with SMARTwheels someday.

The Mophie Juice Pack Powerstation Duo and Powerstation Pro are two portable battery options that let you charge smartphones and tablets quickly without being tied to an outlet. Although similar in design and function, there are differences between the two that make them each ideally suited to different users.

Both are 6000 mAh capacity batteries but the Powerstation Pro is the more rugged with an IP65 (Ingress Protection) rating thanks to a thick rubber skin that protects it from drops, water and dirt. It’s also got two tabs that close securely around its ports to keep anything from mucking up the works.

The Powerstation Pro was designed by Mophie with Apple products in mind so it will charge any iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, as well as most USB devices. It comes with a USB to micro USB cable that you’ll use for charging the battery either through a wall outlet adapter or through your computer. You can then use the same cable to charge micro USB devices from the Powerstation Pro.

There are a series of LED lights on the top of the Powerstation Pro that light up at the press of a button so you know just how much juice remains. This battery is a bit on the heavier and bulkier side, but that’s mainly due to the protective rubber skin. If you’re in a relatively clean, indoor environment then it’s a drawback but if you’re outdoors near sand, water and dirt then it’s going to be your battery of choice.

Mophie Juice Pack Powerstation Duo, Image: Mophie

If you don’t care about the rubber skin or if you’ve got primarily non-Apple products to charge, then you’ll want to consider the Powerstation Duo. This is slimmer and lighter than the Pro since it doesn’t have that protective skin. It handles the same Apple devices, but supports a wider range of non-Apple products.

Like the Pro, it has a battery capacity of 6000 aMh, LED indicator lights to monitor charging and comes with a USB to micro USB cable. You can charge two smartphones at once with this one or even a tablet and a phone although that’ll slow down the speed at which your devices charge.

There was a long line of people waiting for a chance to play with the Leap Motion controller at SXSW earlier this month and I was among those eager to give it a try. The idea of waving your hands in the air to use a computer instead of using a mouse is so living-in-the-future that it’s hard to resist.

As an avid gamer, my motion-control experience has been with the Kinect for Xbox which can be an incredible amount of fun. Sure, if you’re not careful you whack your fellow players in the head, but that’s a small price to pay for the fun of being able to move your hands around and have things happen on the screen. I expected the Leap Motion to be no different.

Learning how to use the Leap Motion was very much like learning to use the Kinect in that the first thing you have to do is figure out just where you can move your hands and have the device “see” you. Too far left or right and it won’t pick up your hands. The same thing goes for being too near or far from the screen. You have to figure it out and it does take a little playing around to find the sweet spot.

That said, once you find that sweet spot it’s pretty amazing. It’s not just one point on the screen that you control, but ten. Each finger and your thumbs are separate points that can all operate independently, just like your actual hand.

It picked up the movements of my fingers incredibly well, spacing them just the way I held them, but what was most impressive was just how small a movement it could sense. I just barely wiggled the tip of my finger and that tiny motion was picked up. So, it’s cool, but how will you actually use it day-to-day?

Leap Motion, Image: Leap Motion

There are lots of gaming applications, like Fruit Ninja, that are perfect for the Leap Motion, all of which will be downloadable from AirSpace. There are also more practical applications that are no less exciting. Imagine designing with something like Corel and you get an idea of the huge potential power in this little device.

Although I was excited to play with the Leap Motion and was amazed by what it did, I have to say I’m not entirely sure just how much I’d use it if I had one sitting on my desk. Yes, it’s fun. I sliced and diced fruit like a pro, but holding your hands in the air gets a little tiring. Just how much fruit can you slice like that?

There’s also a serious learning curve, like I mentioned earlier, where you have to find that sweet spot. If you’re used to using a mouse for small movements on the screen, then it’s going to take some time, and possibly cause some frustration, as you try to relearn things with the Leap Motion.

It remains to be seen if this will become an indispensable peripheral or if it’ll just be a lark, but either way you’ll be able to decide for yourself in just a few months. Pre-orders ship on May 13th with the device showing up for $79.99 on the shelf at your local Best Buy store on May 19th.

MapMyFitness underwent a major upgrade in February 2013, bringing in an MVP subscription service that includes more statistics than ever before. Just ignore that low battery, I’m known for pushing a iPhone’s limits. Screen capture: Patricia Vollmer.

Who remembers having a spiral notebook to log workouts? If I look hard enough, I think I could dig up mine from my pre-smartphone days. Now with the power of a smartphone, it’s all in the palm of your hand.

Two years ago I had reviewed MapMyFitness and was blown away by all the statistics available. I also loved how I could import my Nike+ and Garmin GPS-watch workouts, thus giving me a record of all my workouts in one smartphone app.

Over the past couple years, I’ve continued to use MapMyFitness off and on alongside Nike+, while learning about other fitness apps, such as Wahoo, RunKeeper and FitBit.

Earlier this year I received the offer to explore MapMyFitness’s newest feature: its MVP subscription, which includes several additional features. I explored the newest MapMyFitness during the months of January and February, putting in nearly 100 road miles while exploring its social media settings, statistical analysis and ability to integrate well with most other popular fitness apps.

I had the opportunity for a one-on-one demo session with one of the co-founders of MapMyFitness, Robin Thurston. I was well-equipped to truly explore the new tools that came out in February.

About MapMyFitness

MapMyFitness is a comprehensive fitness training app, seamlessly merging web-based analysis tools with mobile and device-based data collection tools. From running to biking to swimming to walking your dog to even Zumba, MapMyFitness has thought of everything. I had written about the free MapMyFitness about two years ago. I listed pros and cons of the app, and compared it to Nike+. Many of those features are still in place, so I don’t think I need to repeat myself. If you’re interested in the free download, it can be found at the Apple App Store, Blackberry App World or the Android Market.

Robin Thurston explained to me that MapMyFitness has over 13 million registered users and is compatible with over 200 devices, from the latest FitBit to your favorite Garmin bike computer. Thurston used the term “device agnostic” to describe the near transparency MapMyFitness strives to have with other fitness electronics. I thought that was well-put.

Being a statistics geek, I was super-impressed with seeing my pace on 0.1 mile increments. Screen capture: Patricia Vollmer.

About MVP

MVP is MapMyFitness’s premium subscription service, currently available for iOS in full form, and in a partial format for Android. The Android platforms are expected to have full functionality by this summer. Launched in February 2013, MVP offers an incredible new level of analysis and social networking to your workout. In addition to doing away with the ads, MVP has dozens more analysis tools, course planning tools, personal coaching and live tracking with connectivity to your favorite social networks. As of this writing, upgrading to the MVP service will cost you $5.99 per month or $29.99 per year.

If you use the free version, you already have many workout tracking and analysis tools available, but if you want the next level, MVP will do it for you. In particular, their additional statistics, Route Recommender and Live Tracking are all available if you upgrade. Let’s learn more, shall we?

Additional Statistics

By upgrading to MVP, you are able to view more statistics about your workout. Once you record a workout, you can view pace and distance information divided into splits. Here is a sampling of what you can view:

Pace divided into custom splits, from 0.1 miles all the way to every 10 miles if you’re an ultra-marathoner.

Enhanced heart rate information. If you run with a heart rate monitor strap, you can view convenient graphs of your heart rate, plus see your max/min heart rate, and analyze how much time you spent in your cardio or max zones.

Power Zone summary. If you are a cyclist and have a Power Meter device, you can view enhanced analysis of your power output, most of which correlated from heart rate.

Your MVP subscription will provide more detailed heart rate information, if you wear a heart rate monitor while you work out. Screen capture: Patricia Vollmer.

Route Recommender

This is likely one of the coolest parts of the MVP program. Let’s say you’re at San Diego Comic Con and it’s your first time in San Diego. You’re staying at the San Diego Marriott (hey, we can all dream, right?) and you want to take a leisurely run through the crowds in the Gaslamp Quarter.

Simply input the run starting location into the web version of MapMyFitness, a desired run length, and the system will output you an appropriate-length route that starts and ends at your location.

I love this! I know this is going to come in handy when I get to my new community in Colorado Springs this June!

I signed myself up for the 10K Intermediate training plan to start this week. Once you choose your start date, MapMyFitness will pre-load the expected workouts into your workout calendar. As you perform the recommended workouts, your workout calendar will match up with your training plan.

I also was able to import the training plan into my iCal app and my iCloud, thus syncing it with my MacBook, iPad and iPhone calendars.

No matter what con, business trip or vacation you take, MVP’s Route Recommender can help you run or bike the distance you want. You don’t want to run under I-5? Simply hit the big orange button again for a completely new route. Screen capture: Patricia Vollmer.

Last year I reviewed the Third Rail battery case for the iPhone 4, since then I have upgraded to an iPhone 5 and was interested in trying out another battery case to see if it would be any better. I was offered a prototype of the iKit NuCharge which has currently raised almost double it’s funding goal on Kickstarter, and I have been using it for the past week.

The NuCharge uses a removable battery that connects to a special case that you keep on your phone permanently. The battery is charged via USB either from your computer or by switching the cables and connecting it to your iPhone’s charger. A series of blue lights down the battery’s side indicate it’s charge level.

Once fully charged, the battery can fully recharge your iPhone’s battery or top it up, as necessary. This is done by unhooking a short lightning cable from the bottom of the battery and plugging it into your phone’s socket.

This method means that the case doesn’t have to sit over the bottom of your phone, leaving the speaker’s and headphone jack fully accessible, although it’s not the most streamlined of designs. The battery design also incorporates a hole that leaves the camera and flash fully operational whilst it is attached, meaning that your phone is fully functional whilst charging.

Once attached to the phone via the lightning cable a button on the side of the battery switches the power supply on and off, although why you would keep the slightly cumbersome cable attached to your phone and not stored inside its neat compartment if you weren’t actively charging is a mystery to me.

The battery, although lightweight for its size (the kit weighs less than the Mophie Juice Pack at just 58g) does significantly increase the weight of the phone if left attached. Because of this the battery is removable from the case and a range of thin back covers will be available in different colors and styles.

This solves one of the biggest problems I had when reviewing the Third Rail battery case which left the battery ports exposed on the back of the case when the battery itself was not attached. This was, if nothing else, ugly. The NuCharge thin backs convert the case into a standard fashion case when you don’t need the battery and keep the phone very slim at only 11mm deep. For comparison the iPhone 5 is 7.6mm deep by itself and 9mm deep with my other basic case attached. Adding the battery to the NuCharge case increases the depth to 17mm. The length and width of the phone are only increased by a millimeter or so,meaning that even with the battery attached the phone still fits comfortably inside my jeans pockets.

Another useful feature of the NuCharge is the kickstand built into the rear of the battery allowing you to easily prop your phone up to watch videos.

Some complaints have been made that the stand only works in landscape mode. However as most viewing is done in this mode, hopefully it will not be a problem the majority of the time. The stand on my prototype is made of a rather thin plastic that feels extremely fragile but as a result of feedback from early reviews the company has recently announced that the final product will use a much stronger aluminium stand instead.

Even with its comparatively flimsy plastic design I have found the kickstand to be very useful, propping up my phone so I can watch the latest episode of The Flog whilst I grab a quick lunch.

Overall, the iKit NuCharge is a brilliant battery case that solves many of the problems found in other designs and adds in some other helpful features as well.

I don’t think much of the brushed silver fashion back that came supplied with my prototype (I’ve actually noticed some scratches on it after just a week) but once the full range of backs is available, I’m sure I’ll be able to find one that suits my style more. The NuCharge Kickstarter campaign has less than a week left to run and products are set to ship in April, so if you’d like to pre-order a NuCharge at the discounted pledge rates now’s the time to do it, there’s even a couple of Kickstarter exclusive covers available.

NuCharge kits start at $59 for Kickstarter pledges (retail will be from $79) so they’re not the cheapest cases available, although comfortably close to the price point for most other iPhone 5 battery cases. If you use your phone a lot and spend much of your day away from chargers, then that’s probably a bargain for a case that manages to encompass functionality with generally pleasing aesthetics. Otherwise it may be a little steep for an occasional recharge on the go.

Samsung introduces the Galaxy S4 at Radio City Music Hall. Photo credit: Andrea Schwalm.

Late last week I attended Samsung’s “Unpacked 2013″ event at Radio City Music Hall in order to take a closer look at the Galaxy S4 smartphone, set for release in April. The experience was mostly positive. Despite selling over 100 million Galaxy SIII phones last year, Samsung continues to grapple with its Apple inferiority complex and overcompensates by offering a dizzying array of new features at each of its launches. This event was no exception. A 45-minute “Broadway-styled” set of skits designed to showcase all of the line’s improvements read like an inspired but endless laundry list of the recently-unimaginable. Bigger screen, longer battery life, better camera, faster, more-efficient chip, foreign language translation, eye scrolling, air gesture recognition, dual video capture and call mode (where the person you’re speaking with can see your face through the secondary camera and everything around you via the primary camera)…this is a phone that is begging you to be its friend!

So many features were touted and applauded that choosing what to highlight became difficult. However, the S4 upgrades that I think are most significant are its improved primary camera (now 13 megapixels); its coterie of space-age user-tracking functions (including “eye-scrolling” that detects where your eyes are on the screen and will no doubt have Philip K. Dick rolling in his grave); and the promise of a Galaxy S4-compatible, Wii U-style controller that can turn your phone into either a handheld gaming device or a highly portable video game system.

A full list of Galaxy S4 features I liked included:

A 5-inch 1080p Super AMOLED display with a pixel density of 441ppi — a genuine improvement over the Galaxy S III’s 306ppi display, as well as the iPhone 5′s 326ppi retina display.

A 13 megapixel primary BSI camera with f/2.2 aperture and autofocus.

A battery that lasts up to 24 hours and will now be able to charge wirelessly using NFC (near field communication).

New toys for that new camera: Drama Shot will create animated GIFs using the camera’s “burst mode,” and Sound & Shot will record up to nine seconds of audio to accompany a still photo.

An Exynos 5 Octa eight-core chip, which will feature both a quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 1.8GHz setup and a Cortex-A7 1.2GHz cluster alongside — which will also contribute to that more-efficient battery usage.

A glove friendly interface: In other words, the phone will detect touch even through gloves.

The aforementioned Galaxy S4-compatible controller, also pictured below. The controller will come bundled with eight games, be compatible with 80 additional Android games, and will communicate with televisions via Bluetooth. It is set for release in May. For handheld game play, the controller has an extendable clamp designed to accommodate either the S4 or the Note 2. For gaming on a larger screen, the phone will communicate wirelessly via Bluetooth with any smart TV.

Features I still have questions about:

The Eye scrolling — Will my preferences be saved somewhere? Am I giving away privacy for the sake of fingerless page scrolling? Also: Will it keep up with me? I’m a pretty fast reader…

The Air Gesture — Is this going to pick up all of my movements and interpret them as actions? Will it become the auto-correct of the user tracking world, performing actions I am not asking for simply because I use my hands when I talk?

The Dual-Video Capture mode — Do I want to easily share my surroundings with the person that I’m talking to on the phone?

The Smart Pause feature that stops video you’re watching if your eyes drift away — What if I simply don’t want to watch that portion of the video? What if just-listening is just fine?

Conclusion:

None of the criticisms I’ve written about here are actually deal breakers. I think that Samsung is actually making a very interesting set of products with its Galaxy series. Furthermore: At this point, I think that Samsung’s products are more innovative and playful than Apple’s but that Apple has the better app store.

Actress Julianne Moore has launched a new companion app for her Freckleface Strawberry book series. Image: Peter Lindbergh.

Julianne Moore is an Oscar-nominated actress, an accomplished author, a mom, and yes — a freckleface.

Long before Moore was known for her work in films such as Boogie Nights, The Big Lebowski, The Hours, The Kids Are All Right, and Game Change, she was a little girl with the nickname. As an adult, she parlayed those childhood taunts into the book Freckleface Strawberry, which includes illustrations by LeUyen Pham. To date, Freckleface Strawberry has had three adventures as well as a full-length musical.

Now, the little red-haired girl is bringing her sweet messages to the digital masses. All three Freckleface Strawberry books just launched in the the e-book format. To accompany the character’s digital debut, Moore and Nymbly are also introducing the Freckleface Strawberry Monster Maker app.

Designed for the iPad and iPad mini, the new app has Freckleface Strawberry helping kids make new, furry friends, by creating their very own on-screen monster. If you’re familiar with the books, the app makes perfect sense. Otherwise, it’s cute and allows users to get creative, share pics with friends and family, and more.

I got the chance to talk to Moore about the new app, her work, her life as a mom, and her now-famous nickname.

GM: The books have actually been out for a few years now, but what made you first decide to write Freckleface Strawberry?

Julianne Moore: My son was 7 at the time and he was getting his two front teeth. He didn’t like them at all and would say stuff like, “Since I got my haircut, I don’t like how my ears are.” He suddenly became very self-conscious. I remembered when I was 7, I had this nickname “Freckleface Strawberry” and I found it so humiliating. Of course, now I laugh at those awful names. So that’s what this book is about. It’s how those things in childhood that bother us often don’t go away when you grow up. I still have red hair and freckles, but they matter less because you have more things to think about. You have a family, you have a marriage, you have a job, you have friends and interests; having freckles and red hair goes to the bottom of the list in terms of things that we care about. That was the inspiration for writing that first book. Then it was so much fun, I wrote two more!

GM: Did you originally envision it as a series — and a musical?

Moore: The first time I wrote it, it was sort of that one story and then very quickly, the second one followed. Even before I had published the first one, I had written the second one. Then, it took me a really long time to write the third one! I kept making these jokes to my husband [Bart Freundlich], who’s a writer, that I was blocked.

GM: Do you plan to continue the series?

Freckleface Strawberry. Image: LeUyen Pham/Bloomsbury USA.

Moore: I don’t know — maybe. I have another book actually coming out; not with Bloomsbury, but Chronicle, in September. It’s called My Mom is a Foreigner, But Not to Me. That’s a book about the experience of growing up with a mom from another country. My mother was from Scotland.

It wasn’t really an intentional thing to be in the children’s book world, but it’s become something that I really love doing. It’s really fun and the app is an extension of that. I wanted to create something that was like the book and complemented the book.

The app is sort of a continuation of how in Dodgeball she [Freckleface Strawberry] has that monster. She talks about the monster and why she has the monster. The monster is in her imagination and he keeps her company, plays games with her, and cheers her up. He’s her pal and he’s obviously what’s inside of her. So I wanted to talk about that with kids and say, “What does your monster look like?” — and you’ll able to make it and take a picture. Also, I wanted to create something that parents wouldn’t feel bad about giving their kids to play with in the backseat of the car or a restaurant. It’s an extension of this book and the child-centric world that they create. I hope that I’ve accomplished that. It was a lot of fun to do.

GM: You mention monsters in the book and the app. What’s the significance there? Or do you just think that kids love playing monsters?

Moore: I think that kids like to play monsters. In Dodgeball, Freckleface Strawberry is afraid of balls, but she’s not afraid of monsters, her imagination or the dark. And this kid, who seems very scary and loves balls, turns out to be afraid of monsters. She has to say to him, “Hey it’s not real; it’s just me. I’m the monster.” It’s just a way to talk about fears. Also, your inside monster can help you be brave or it can just keep you company, be your friend. It’s just part of yourself and your imagination.

GM: Are these the types of games that you used to play as a kid?

Moore: Well, I hated dodgeball. That’s sort of the thing I talk about with kids, talking about different fears. Then in Best Friends Forever, there are two different friends that have become best friends. They’re told that they can’t be friends because they are too different, but then they discover that they can because they’re two human beings. The books are obviously based somewhat on my experiences growing up. I always say that Best Friends Forever is a metaphor for marriage. However, they take place in a child-centric world where the kids figure out the answers to their own problems.

GM: So wait, does that mean that you married Windy Pants Patrick?

Moore: I didn’t, but I married someone who loves balls. Dodgeball is dedicated to Bart. He loves to play ball. It’s just one of those things where we’ll do stuff that I could see Windy Pants Patrick and Freckleface Strawberry doing, doing stuff with each other and sometimes doing stuff that the other one likes. And that’s OK to do; that’s what friends do.

GM: Was there a real Windy Pants Patrick?

Moore: The character is actually based on a special-ed kid that I knew when I was on the playground in Lincoln, Nebraska. My school was very forward thinking; this would have been like 1968. We all played on the same playground. There was an elementary school and a special-ed department for kids that were developmentally delayed and had other disabilities. Because we were all exposed to one another… at first it seemed very different. There was one very big boy who was older than me that I used to play with. He really changed my notion of what a disability was and how you interact with people forever. It was really eye opening for me. Windy Pants Patrick is not developmentally delayed, but he is based on a friend that I had that seemed very scary and that was so not the case.

The Freckleface Strawberry Monster Maker app is available for the iPad and iPad mini. Image: Nymbly.

GM: With the nickname and all, did you feel bullied as a kid?

Moore: I wasn’t bullied. Kids don’t want to be different. I didn’t want to have freckles. Where I was growing up at the time, there weren’t a lot of freckly kids. Everything that was said in the book like, “What are those?” and “How did you get them?” — those were all things that were said to me. It was stuff that would make kids uncomfortable, but it’s interesting. Have you read the reviews of that book [Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy] about bullying that just came out? There were a few and I’m just paraphrasing, but one of the things that she [author Emily Bazelon] said is that we’re kind of misnaming what bullying is. There are ways that children treat each other that are unkind and there’s teasing and then there’s genuine abuse and real bullying. There are lots of different categories for what happens with kids. I certainly didn’t experience bullying. I think I experienced teasing, which is a different kind of thing.

GM: Well how did you overcome all of that?

Moore: It’s the same thing that happens in the book. How does a 7-year-old solve a problem like this? You think, “I’m going to get rid of my freckles.” In her experience, the way she got rid of them was to cover them up. In covering the freckles up, she completely disappeared as a kid and no one could see her. When she goes away, her friends miss her. Her experience with her freckles are not the same as everyone else’s experience. These things seem problematic, but at the end of the day, who cares about having a million freckles when I have a million friends?

GM: What role do freckles play in your life and work today?

Moore: Hopefully very little! Our physiognomy obviously plays a part in who we are. If you’re extra tall or extra short, big or little or freckly; all of those things are going to create some kind of image in the world. Hopefully, we have all learned to look beyond and that doesn’t become the defining issue — our physicality is not the defining issue.

GM: So you’ve never come up for a role and had the freckles be an issue?

Moore: I don’t know; they wouldn’t tell me that. But I’m sure I have. Sometimes somebody says so-and-so is not the right age or too tall or this or that, but all of it’s subjective.

GM: I know that your kids are older now, but do they even care that their mom is an Oscar-nominated actress, an author and all of these other wonderful things?

Moore: My son said the most wonderful thing to me the other night when we were talking about stuff that we need to have in the fridge. I had run out of turkey and I needed to make my daughter’s sandwich for a field trip and was like “darnit!” He said something about, “Oh that’s ok, mom. You kind of have other stuff to do; you’re busy.” And I thought that was really sweet and I said that I try to do a good job and maybe I would do a better job if I wasn’t doing all of this work. Then he said, “I can’t imagine having a mom that didn’t work.” I think they both have an appreciation for what I do and what their dad does and what their futures hold, in terms of work. We’ve always stressed to them that work is about being able to make money and take care of yourself, but if you’re lucky enough, it’s also a form of delight, expression and the way that you live your life. That’s what I want for them. I want them to find things that they find joy in doing.

GM: Do you have a favorite children’s book?

Moore: That’s tough; there are too many. There’s one that I read that’s fairly new, by a writer who’s written so many things. Do you know Brundibár? It’s by Maurice Sendak and Tony Kushner. I love it. I just think it’s endlessly inspiring; beautifully illustrated, incredible story, very moving, a lot of historical context, shocking and surprising. What’s amazing about it is how kids respond to it. It’s just a brilliant book.

It used to be that all-in-one printers were prohibitively priced for most of us. Granted, that was a while ago, but they are still getting more affordable all the time. I have much more than basic printing needs, because I’m always copying worksheet masters and various other things for homeschooling. But my laser printer won’t print from any of my portable devices. This is occasionally a problem.

I’d heard of printers that would print with Apple AirPrint, but there are also other ways to print from portable devices. Using the Epson WF-3540 is one such way. It will print while physically connected to a computer, or over your home Wi-Fi. But it will also connect through Google Cloud Print and Epson Connect, and also supports Apple AirPrint.

Image: Epson

When I got the printer, it was very easy to set up for printing from a computer that was physically connected to my home network. I didn’t even need the suggested (but not included) USB cable. We just followed the directions, and voila, we were printing.

Setting up to print from my iPad was less straight forward. We chose to set up Google Cloud Print, whose setup information was slightly difficult to follow, but it was all contained in the User’s Guide. After many starts and stops, we finally found the right help screens that guided us through the steps. The steps included determining our IP address (I don’t have a static IP, though, so I imagine we’ll have to set this up on a regular basis), typing the IP address in the address bar in a browser, and following the instructions. You have to link the printer to a Google account. Once we got it set up, though, it worked beautifully, and I successfully printed from my iPad and my iPhone. Now I can print anything from my DropBox folders on the fly, and from many, many other applications. This is going to come in handy frequently.

On other printers, such as my laser and the last ink jet I had, printing in draft mode did a pretty good job. We found that draft mode with this printer, though, left white lines through everything. You could still read it, but it was distracting. We’ve taken to printing in standard mode for even just plain text. It also seems to underperform in gray scale, with lines of white sometimes showing up even in standard mode. So we tend to leave it on Standard Color for printing anything important, with the Text and Graphics Density setting.

One really cool feature that I’d never had any experience with is automatic two-sided printing. Using it is so much better than the usual odd page printing, then even page printing, hoping that you get the pages lined up correctly when you put them back in the paper tray. The only problem we found with that, though, is that it leaves some ink on the corner of the page, since there isn’t enough default dry time before it flips the page over. You can change the settings to add in extra dry time, though. The printer will also do two-sided copying, scanning, and, for those of you who still have a need for it, faxing. The Automatic Document Feeder can handle up to 30 letter-sized pages for those functions.

We found that color copying looks very good, with the color turning out pretty true to real life. It’s not exact, but it does give much truer color than my color laser printer (a Samsung CLX-3175FW). The printer also has several scanning modes in the included scanning software. You can also scan and save documents in DropBox, Evernote, or other locations.

The printer has a touch screen to access the menus, and you can use gestures to navigate. There are two front printing trays, so you can store your regular paper in one, and something special in the other, such as envelopes, photo paper, labels, or a different sized paper.

The ink cartridges are individual, so you only need to replace the ones you use up. The ink is DURABrite Ultra ink, which is supposed to dry very quickly, not smudge or fade, and be water-resistant.

The Epson WF-3540 retails for $199, but can be found cheaper. Check out the Epson website for more information about this printer. While it claims to have “blazing” speed, I found that it’s just a good, fast, versatile printer. I recommend it to anyone looking for an inkjet all-in-one, especially one that can be printed to from wireless devices.

In terms of the technology being used to educate our children, the state of Maine has traditionally followed its state motto: “I Lead,” and has a strong history of being at the forefront with new technology in education. GeekMom has previously looked at iPads in the classroom, independent programs introducing kindergartners to the world of the touch pad. Now, the Maine Learning Initiative — MLTI — is on the verge of announcing its next steps, steps that will pave the way for 21st Century learners in Maine and across the U.S.

As touch pads have become more ubiquitous in everyday life, and the current run of MLTI machines is coming to the end of its four year lifespan, tech savvy educators across the state have been wondering: “What comes next?” What device is sustainable, able to integrate with current methods of learning, and will prove to be a key aspect in the economic future of this country? It is very possible that the iPad or some other form of touchscreen will spearhead the learning initiative for Maine’s future students.

Why should you be paying attention to something happening in the far Northeast? Well, the progression of the initiative tracks the growth of technology in the classroom far beyond the traditional computer lab and the confines of one lone state. In 1999/2000 the State of Maine announced that it was going to use a one time surplus to initiate a scheme in Maine schools that would put a personal computing device into the hands of each middle school student and teacher. A task force was set up to determine what kind of plan would feasibly accomplish this lofty goal. The report issued in 2001 and ensuing legislation saw the program enacted in September 2002. Four years later, after great success a second RFP was issued to continue the program. In 2009 the program was extended into Maine High Schools when the State was able to lease 100,000 machines from Apple. In June of that year a further 64,000 MacBooks were ordered. The current bid, that asked for touchscreens and laptops to be proposed, has an option in place for other states to piggy back on the technology and the pricing obtained in Maine.

In Maine the program is not mandatory, but it has wide support from superintendents across the state. In January 2010 participation was recorded as follows:

My new found love of internet radio has me listening to a broader variety of things these days, and on a whim one day, I selected a film scores station. I have to admit I’m a John Williams fan, I mean what geek isn’t. But once you lay aside his epic scores, I have never been an instrumental soundtrack kind of gal. I have a rather large, varied collection of soundtracks that involve music with words, and another of musical theater, but when it comes to the background music, the music that sets the overall tone of a movie, the incidental, I have been neglectful. I should have known there was much more to this field after the completion of The Lord of the Rings trilogy produced one of the most beautiful and dramatic scores I have noticed in recent years. So when I selected the film scores station, I assumed I would get variations of Howard Shore. What I got instead was a wonderfully dramatic backdrop for my day. I was plunged to the depths of despair and then raised to heights of patriotism that I never knew a Brit could feel towards her adopted land. Here are just a few of the musical scores I have discovered recently; they may not make it into the pantheon of film scores, but they are wonderful in their own right.

Forrest Gump
The more pop-centric soundtrack to this movie is excellent, with Vietnam era classics getting stuck as your internal theme music for days, and with a line up including “Everybody’s Talkin” and “Respect,” it has been one of my go-to albums for many years. Perhaps because of this, the beautiful score by Alan Silvestri can often get overlooked. The music reflects the personality of the main character, simple with surprising depth, full of emotion of all kinds. It sweeps you along in the narrative of the story, even when you are not watching the film itself.

This score has a weight to it that I wasn’t expecting. The piano comes on strong and is lent depth by the accompanying string music. Tom Hanks seemed larger than life to me in this movie, an imposing figure where before he was just Tom Hanks. As I listened to this score, I realized that this impression owed much to the music by Thomas Newman as well as the cinematography. A greatness of being packed into a small space.

I haven’t seen this movie, but the score by John Powell is something else. I would dare the anger of Pixar fans and say it is better than that of Brave. It is certainly better than Dreamworks bigger seller, Shrek. This film barely hit my radar when it came out and so I was surprised by just how good the score was; the more songs that played from this movie, the more I realized how good it was. To describe the score in one word, I would have to say it is “animated.” Now don’t laugh. The variety that Powell presents could be distorting but it works, and brings together a storyline through music.

These films have haunting soundtracks, but when I looked to see who was behind them, I couldn’t be surprised. I know John Williams by name, and the only other film score musician I know by name is Rachel Portman, who is responsible for these two movies. She creates beautiful music for such bizarre stories, you get completely swept up in the sounds and sights of the worlds she helps create.

I would never have labeled myself a Daft Punk fan but I found myself liking the punchy sound they provided in TRON Legacy. I especially enjoyed the epic sounding “The Game Has Changed” and the somewhat more electronic “The Son of Flynn.”

If you can get past the idea of the movie itself, the add-on ending, and that image of the three main characters that was plastered everywhere, then you will thoroughly enjoy this soundtrack. It has a touch of the classic movie scores about it, the choral interludes in particular are haunting. This one is really hard to separate from my dislike of the movie though. I usually like cheese in my movies, but I found it hard to like Pearl Harbor. Even so, the music is spectacular.

Just because the movie didn’t do the book justice, and did not spawn sequels as it should have done, doesn’t mean we can blame the boogie. In fact the score for this movie does more justice to the book than the movie did, and I kind of liked the movie. Put this on, read the book, and call it good.

In addition to overlooked films, I am also able to listen to things that I would not ordinarily be exposed to. The soundtrack to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, composed by Jeremy Soule, is beautiful. As neither my husband nor I play the game, it is not something I would have otherwise found. This list is by no means comprehensive of everything I have discovered or re-discovered. I have a feeling that I have only begun to scratch the surface of a rich and diverse musical experience. What would you suggest for my next playlist?

Image from Flickr photo stream NicoCanali used with permission under CC license

1) Pi is one of the coolest (and most used) mathematical constants there is. It first arrived in written word on 1900-1600BC Babylonian clay tablets, where pi was estimated to be 23/8≈3.1250.

Pi(π) is defined as the ratio of a circles circumference C to its diameter d. This means that no matter the size of the circle the ratio will never change. However, this definition is only valid in 2-dimensional Euclidean geometry. A second definition was created to describe pi in a more universal manner, pi is twice the smallest positive x for which cos(x)=0.

Pi is an irrational number, meaning it can never be written as the ratio of two integers. The most commonly known fractional equivalent of pi, 22/7, is only accurate to two decimal places of the actual pi value. Since pi is irrational, it has an infinite number of digits in its decimal state, and will never end in a repeating pattern of numbers.

Pi is a transcendental number. Pi as a number is not algebraic, it cannot be the root of a non-zero polynomial equation with rational coefficients.

The digits of pi actually pass statistical randomness tests, there is no pattern whatsoever.

2) Geeks and nerds the world around have iconized this mathematical symbol to the point of cultdom. Pi has been immortalized on t-shirts, jewelry, through parades, secret handshakes, inside jokes, Google doodles, college pep rally chants, and memorization competitions.

There are likely as many versions of geeky pi t-shirts as there are digits in pi itself (see caption above).

Did you know that San Francisco holds a Pi Day parade every March the 14th? This parade will have 500 digits… I mean people marching down the Embarcadero to the Pi Shrine. The Pi Shrine is a one foot diameter gold plate engraved with the first 108 digits of pi.

When you are out and about on Pi Day, give someone a “High Pi” instead of a high five. It’s similar to a high five, but uses only three fingers instead of five.

If you ever attended or dream of attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), you will likely learn cheers that are a bit different from those that other schools learn.

I’m a Beaver, you’re a Beaver, we are Beavers all.
And when we get together, we do the Beaver call.
E to the U du dx,
E to the X dx.
Cosine, secant, tangent, sine, 3.14159.
Integral radical mu dv
Slipstick, sliderule, MIT.
Go Tech!

3) You are encouraged to eat pi in all of its forms: fruit pie, meat pie, pizza pie, creme pie, egg pie…. you get the idea, Eat PIE! There is a pie for everyone!

Bonus) Poetry! There are poets who have coined an entirely new form of poetry in the for of pi-related haiku called pi-ku. However my favorite will always be the pi limericks, I’ll leave you with one, but add your own pi poetry to the comments!

Yeah, I know a lot of apps are trying to be the Instagram of video, including Twitter’s weird Vine attempt, but Magisto captures the feel in a way I haven’t seen with other apps. Instagram is Instagram because it’s simple, slightly cheesy, and easy to share. Magisto is pretty much that — only with video.

You don’t have to do any editing to make a cool video. In fact, you can’t do any editing at this point. You just shoot some video or choose one or more movies that you’ve already shot, pick a theme, pick licensed background music, and let Magisto’s algorithms handle the rest. Once your video is created, you’ll get an email. Share your video on Twitter, Facebook, or by link. You can also export your videos to YouTube.

Here’s a simple video I shot the other day from my phone:

This came from a few minutes of video shot from my phone while my family went sledding. Note: I removed the background music because YouTube flagged it as licensed content. The original with music can be seen here, where Magisto allows comments or a heart-shaped favoriting button–just like Instagram.

Simple is good.

The problem with most home movies is that they’re at least twice as long as they need to be, and they look like they were shot by people making home movies. Video editing software has a heck of a learning curve, and it’s exhausting to make all those choices about edits. Magisto acts as the “easy button.” Magisto, so far, seems to make very reasonable guesses about what parts of the video are important, and the resulting video is short enough to be interesting and easy to share.

However, if you don’t like the results, you’re out of luck. You just have to try again, because there’s no editing. There’s also no way to upload your own background music or specify that you don’t want a soundtrack. (Update: There is now an option to create a movie without a soundtrack. I referred to information on the Magisto FAQ that was outdated and has now been corrected.) The soundtrack does respond to human voices, though, so it doesn’t drown out your dialog. However, if you have dialog in a movie and want to transfer it to YouTube, you can’t just drop the audio after you get it there, like I did with the sledding video. You need a soundtrack-free option to avoid this. The company claims they’re working on more flexibility with the soundtrack.

Right now the free version of Magisto is limited to 16 hosting videos, and you’re charged $.99 to $2.99 to download a video you made. You can use the Magisto website directly or download free apps for iOS or Android. If you hit the max, you just have to download your files or export them to YouTube before deleting them from Magisto.

Make no mistake, this is not a high end editing suite. This is how you share baby photos. Or a video of your kids sledding. Or movies about your cats. It’s not going to win you an Oscar, but it is fun, easy, and maybe a little hokey.

I’ve been in the market for a personal vinyl cutter for sometime now. I started looking at them years ago when I was doing a lot more scrapbooking and buying individual die cutters was cost prohibitive for me. In the last 10 years personal cutting systems have been on the market, and while the idea of having one for all of my crafty endeavors appealed to me, the cost was always prohibitive due to the nature of the cartridge systems that were required and not being able to customize the images that I wanted.

Cricut Craft Room Screenshot Image by Helene McLaughlin

Last year I intensified my search for a cutting system after seeing the Provo Cricut Mini in action at Maker Fair NYC. The Cricut Mini is a slimmed down version of the original Cricut machines, and at $99 on Amazon it’s a great kit for those looking for an inexpensive cutting system. Straight out of the box it’s easy to see that this machine is different than its predecessors in the Cricut product line. The Cricut Mini has no handle, no digital display, no keyboard and is much lighter then either of the Expression models. The Cricut Mini can either accept any of the Cricut cartridges on the market or it can be controlled by the Cricut Craft Room software. The Cricut Craft Room gives you access to about 400 images for free before having to purchase additional cartridges or images. I had hoped that the software would be the ticket to making my own designs; however, it isn’t. It’s a great program for maximizing your paper usage and designing your layouts, but there are no design capabilities incorporated.

The Cricut Mini comes with a starter pack of paper, one mat with cover and a starter project. Follow the enclosed step-by-step directions, and wait patiently while the machine cuts very quietly. The Cricut Mini cutting mat comes with a removable adhesive surface to reduce the movement of the paper on its surface. The first few projects I completed were hard to peel from this surface without ripping. However, over time the stickiness reduced and paper came off more easily. I was surprised at the amount of wear that showed up on the mat and I wonder how often the mat will need to be changed in the future.

Paper Party Decor Image from Cricut.com

I will admit, however, that despite the extensive array of cartridges/images available, the Cricut Mini just didn’t meet my needs. I had been looking for a machine that I could be creative with and create my own designs. While the Cricut Mini system is incredibly new-user friendly, it is incredibly non-hacker friendly. All of the patterns are in a proprietary format that isn’t publicly available. You cannot draw and cut just any design you wish from the internet or that you design yourself. All images must come from one of their cartridges or from their online content. This feature was important to me as I am a massive Doctor Who fan and had several projects that I would like to have printed designs, vinyl stickers or fabric cut-outs. This is pretty much impossible since there is no Doctor Who cartridge and no way of creating custom designs.

The Cricut Mini is a great cutting unit for those of you who are curious about precision die cutters, but aren’t sure about paying for a more expensive system. It would be a great tool for anyone who needs to make bulletin boards on a regular basis, i.e., teachers, residence advisers, and even social organizations. It’s also wonderful for folks who really just want to pick and choose pre-made designs for their projects. However, the Cricut brand is unlikely to be the right fit for anyone looking for a die cutting machine that allows true creative freedom.

The ampjacket is a new iPhone (and iPad mini) case that is designed to boost your phone’s volume simply through acoustics without the need for battery draining accessories. The case has been sculpted to divert the phone’s speaker through boosting channels at the back of the phone that increase the volume, making the sound, according to the packaging blurb, twice as loud.

Other than basic phone features like texting, the thing my iPhone is used for most is playing music. I listen through headphones as I walk to collect my son from pre-school, with the phone on the kitchen counter as I cook dinner, and propped in a glass on high volume when I take a shower. It’s quick, portable and allows me to carry my music with me at all times, although sometimes there is a problem.

Houses can be loud places and trying to listen to my preferred orchestral scores as the tumble dryer spins, the extractor fan whines or the shower hums — well, sometimes my iPhone’s speakers are just not quite up to the job. So when I was offered the chance to try an ampjacket phone case I was very interested.

Naturally I was dubious about this supposed doubling of my phone’s volume, so as soon as the new case arrived I snapped it on. The case looks nice and stylish but has one fairly obvious (and large) flaw, its size. The boosting channels more than double the depth of the phone and a bulge at the bottom means it can no longer be stood on that end without it tilting several degrees to the left; it’s not a case you really want to be keeping on the phone at all times.

Here I faced another problem with the case: it is nigh on impossible to remove. I tried for 15 minutes before giving up, my fingertips raw from being scratched by the edges of the case as it snapped back into place. My husband was eventually able to remove it by digging his nails under the case and prising it off with some application of force, something that I couldn’t do without breaking off half my nails. However by this point any ideas I had previously entertained about snapping the case on when I went for a shower and then reverting back to my usual day-to-day case had been abandoned. It is simply too much effort to bother with for anything more than a sustained period where you need the extra volume.

Speaking of volume, I ran a simple test to see how well the ampjacket did at boosting the volume of some music by playing the same two pieces twice, once with the jacket on and once without. To keep the experiment as fair as possible I kept the phone the same distance apart from the microphone recording the tests, kept the phone in the same position, and kept everything on the same surface without changing anything in the room. Have a listen to the two recordings I made. You’ll first hear the music without the ampjacket boost, then with:

The ampjacket is definitely providing a significant amplification to the sound and easily living up to its marketing claim, it is very impressive and works wonders for my quiet scores. However, I soon happened upon another issue that you may have already noticed in the previous audio clips but which became much more evident when I listened to some rock music.

The ampjacket worked to significantly increase the volume but in doing so it massively distorted the sound, making it unbearable to listen to — at some points it was physically painful. In order to listen to music without distortion I had to turn my iPhone’s volume right down to around halfway, making the output not much louder than at full volume without the ampjacket on, and if I’m doing that then what exactly is the point of the ampjacket?

I was also interested to compare the amplification of the ampjacket against the method my husband and I have been employing around our house for several months. Rather than investing in docks for every room, the kitchen and bathroom are home to drinking glasses that are used as a rudimentary amplifiers. For a further test I used an amplification method popular on the internet, that of placing the phone inside a cereal bowl. I played the same clips and recorded the results.

Interestingly, the bowl method appeared to actually reduce the volume output of the phone. The glass did provide some amplification (although not nearly as much as the ampjacket) and did it without the distortion effect. The underling problem of course is that the iPhone’s speaker was never designed to deliver sound at the kinds of volumes that the ampjacket is providing, so amplifying its output will eventually lead to the sound disintegrating and becoming unlistenable.

So what do I say about the ampjacket? Well it does what it says on the box; the volume output of your phone will be significantly upped, possibly in the long-term if you have as many problems removing the case as I did. It certainly has great potential as a tool for the hard of hearing, boosting the volume of ringtones and notification pings. The thing is that high volume does not necessarily equal high quality and you have to consider whether or not the loss of audio quality and $30 price tag is worth it to you just to blast out your music extra loud. As for me, well, I still haven’t removed my low-tech glass amplifiers and I think they’ll be seeing plenty of use for the time-being.